Our 20 mile paddle on the Anacostia started off with a big storm and a thorough drenching.

A beautiful abandoned mansion in Loudoun County.

The wine berries, here at sunset, will be ready in a few weeks.

Kota dreamily wishing after another fine feast that it could be his birthday every day.

Was sent a pencil by an art group and requested to tweet the resulting sketch. Not my best effort but my first sketch in years. Makes me want to get back into it again if I can find the time. This is little Rosie Lee who was sitting on the back of the sofa and posing very nicely.

Went to the premiere of Copperhead, a civil war movie by director Ron Maxwell, pictured here with me. It was a great movie and we all discussed it afterwards. His previous films are Gettysburg and Gods & Generals. He's hoping to start filming a western next year. 

Really weird.I have never seen these machines before, they're underground drills, often used for laying cables, and in the space of a few days I have to put one on a t-shirt and then I see the same model on a trailer on the way home tonight.

One of the lily ponds at Kennilworth Gardens, DC.

This beautiful Packard was parked outside the grocery store when we stopped for provisions with a cute little old lady sitting in the back seat.

A sprig of lavender at The Lavender Farm.

Haven't posted a photo of Miss Rosie Lee for a while so let's rectify that. She has settled in superbly and has finally become good friends with Kota. Life is calm again at Meadow House.

Sorting out the inks at work, throwing that which has gone off and putting them in color order.

A berry good start to the day.

One of the last cicadas took shelter with me until the storm passed over.

The view from the top of an abandoned grain silo in Baltimore.

The last pub of the evening where we found this wonderful little gazebo out on the lake but unfortunately were not allowed to take our drinks out there. But when the owner heard our accents, and being Irish, he took us to a little porch area where we smoked cigars and chatted with beers while watching the daylight fade and the fireflies light up the dusk.

How cool is this? One of the coaches from UVA who we design and print shirts for brought me back a bottle of Pimm's from his trip to England. How really really nice of him!

And so the dreaded storm hammered through Chantilly and outside Emblemax the rain lashed down with powerful winds helping it to soak everything instantly. It was very dramatic weather and lasted all of 5 minutes.

This arrived in the mail today so I have to produce a sketch soon. God find me the time!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Lunch yesterday included this Dirt Parfait.  I love chocolate but wondered on the name. Even after opening it and seeing gummy worms on top of crumbled Oreo cookies, it took me a while to put two & two together. But it was yummy regardless!

I left work early today as I felt under the weather so it seemed rather fitting that as I lay on the sofa storms thundered and rolled around Marshall all afternoon. And strangely when I woke up early evening the storm had passed and I felt a little better.

Steve's condo is finally ready for its new owner, it's been emptied and cleaned and looning like brand new.

Trying to find the storage unit when helping my friend Steve move house. "It's the one with the blue door!", we were told!

A package from Mum arrived today. Yay!

Some social media icons I've made which if I still like in a day or so will be used with my Emblemax signature.

We had some cute early morning visitors in the meadow.

Had a nice munch on the mulberries as we went for a evening stroll.

Kota reluctantly posing for my photo of the day. He only gave me 2 chances.

After a fun day in DC we raced back to the car and succeeded in avoiding the soaking these black clouds gave other folks unfortunate enough to be caught in the storm.

Sun dapples on the bottom of the Shenandoah River.